Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for performing layout processing of image data, an image processing method, and a storage medium that stores a program.
Description of the Related Art
There are known various kinds of application software (to be referred to as applications hereinafter) configured to create the page designs of posters, catalogs, presentation data, postcards, leaflets/advertisements, and the like. These page design applications to create page designs have a DTP (DeskTop Publishing) function. For example, the applications have a function of adding a shading or decorating effect to an image or character and a print function of outputting data to a large format printer as well as a function of laying out and editing the constituent elements, for example, images, characters, and clip arts of a page design.
The page design applications are roughly classified into expensive high-performance applications used by professional designers and relatively inexpensive general-purpose applications featuring simple operation and processing. A user who has insufficient knowledge about layout design/color design needs a very long time to create a desired page design from the ground up. In addition, a result desirable from the viewpoint of design is not always obtained. To create a page design desirable from the viewpoint of design, know-how and basic design knowledge about layout and coloring are necessary.
For this reason, the general-purpose page design applications often include materials to efficiently create a page design, for example, design templates (patterns), clip art, and photographic images to implement a high-quality page design by simple operations. A user selects a design template close to the imagination of a complete form of a target page design. The user then executes minimum editing operations such as replacement/addition/change of photographic images/texts/materials and decorating effect application as need, thereby completing the page design.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-030597 describes preparing design templates in advance and causing a user to input additional information. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-030597 describes an arrangement that, when inserting a character string into a predetermined layout region capable of character input, changes the character layout method (format) in accordance with the contents of the character string and then inserts it. Further, the user needs to appropriately set the layout of the layout frame itself and the format rule in advance.
In a system that provides a poster or the like, that has already undergone basic design, as a design template, the attributes of an object added by a user operation may be inconsistent with the design template in terms of design without any processing. Hence, if the user does not recognize it, an undesirable design is completed. Even if the user recognizes, the operation procedure increases and lowers the user's operation efficiency. Additionally, since the user himself/herself needs to determine the attributes after change, an undesirable design may still be created.